The view from on high, Australia's eyes in the sky

When air intelligence analyst Tyrone Buckland sits in a box-like portable office at Kandahar Airfield and studies the image being beamed from thousands of metres above a village in southern Afghanistan, he sees a lot.

A Heron is towed out of the hangar before take off at Kandahar Airfield . Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

''You need time. That's the key thing,'' Corporal Buckland said. ''Then you can home in on something that doesn't look right and you dwell on that for a while, create a picture in your mind,'' he said.

The use of drones has been one area where the war in Afghanistan has propelled the Australian Defence Force forward in considerable strides. Before the team of about 30 Australian pilots, analysts and support staff of the Heron detachment at Kandahar set up three years ago, the ADF had little experience of unmanned aircraft.

The Kandahar team has now racked up 15,000 hours flight time with Israeli-made Heron unmanned aerial vehicles the ADF is leasing from Canadian firm MDA. And however controversial drones have become in Australia, the Heron team is utterly persuaded that, in warfare at least, drones are the future.

Border protection is the obvious area where surveillance drones could be used. But with the federal government reviewing Australia's defence plans for coming years, now is the perfect time to explore the broader use of drones, according to the head of the Heron team, Wing Commander Adrian Maso.

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''It's going to happen … we're about to have a rethink of force structure and … in the next few years we have to make decisions about what kind of capability we want. This has been a really excellent stepping stone,'' Wing Commander Maso, 39, said. It's a touchy topic because drones - a word the Heron team eschews, preferring ''unmanned aerial vehicle'' or better still ''remotely piloted aircraft'' - are associated with the remote killing carried out by the US Predator and Reaper craft, or intrusions on privacy in civilian life.

The Herons being operated by the ADF are unarmed and are used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance only. Weighing just over a tonne and with a wingspan of more than 16 metres, the Heron can fly for 24 hours non-stop. Their uses range from gathering intelligence about suspected senior Taliban targets, to feeding Australian special forces, to helping protect Afghan foot patrols by informing them of any insurgent movement.

In a recent speech, Chief of Army, Lieutenant-General David Morrison, said the use of drones had saved Australian lives in Afghanistan.

Acknowledging the controversy, Wing Commander Maso said Australia needs to have a debate about how drones will be used in future - including the prospect of arming them. ''Personally, I don't see a major issue with it, because I know the controls that we would probably place on armed UAVs would be similar or tighter than the ones we place on manned aircraft,'' he said. It was important to remember that drones are flown by experienced pilots with the same caution and diligence as a manned aircraft, he said.

Likewise, the Heron team follows strict rules of engagement in the way it reports what it sees. If Corporal Buckland sees a man carrying something over his shoulder he'll report just that - nothing more. ''Is it a log or a rocket launcher?'' he said. ''We are talking about people's lives … that's always in the back of my mind.''